One Problem at the Time
by PM483
Summary: The trials failed, the angels are falling – Castiel has fallen and Sam is sick. That is too many problems for Dean to deal with all at once, so he has to take them one at the time, starting with the most important.


**One Problem at the Time**

Leaned against the Impala, holding Sam in his arms, Dean watched what for many others may have looked like shooting stars or maybe a meteor shower. But Dean knew what it really was and it was far from a beautiful natural phenomenon.

Sam made a sound so twisted in pain that it made Dean forget all about the fallen angels. _It was a problem he had to deal with later_.

"Sam! Sam are you alright?" Dean asked and shook his brother lightly. But there was no respond, Sam had passed out.

Dean tried to keep his head cool, no time to panic. He had to get Sam to a hospital immediately. The chances that they could do anything were minimal, but it was the best he could at the moment.

As he began to pull Sam up, to get him in to the car, Dean cast a glance at the church where Crowley still was inside. Something he didn't had the time to take care of; Crowley was tied and almost purified. _Another problem that could wait_.

It took several minutes for Dean to get his little brother into the backseat of the car. When Dean was behind the wheel he took a deep breath, seeing yet another angel fall from the sky before he started the car. As he drove so fast he could toward the hospital not caring about speed limits, he couldn't avoid thinking about Castiel. What had happened to him? Had he fallen like all the other angels, or had Metatron done something else to him? Dean took another deep breath. _It's another problem, later. It's about Sam now_.

There was more or less panic in the hospital, the strange phenomenon in the night sky had shocked many people, but at least it didn't seem like any of the angels had been brought to the hospital, because if that had been the case, Dean would not let Sam been hospitalized in fear of some angel losing his mind when he found out what had happen to him.

An hour after they had arrived to the hospital was Sam placed in a bed in clean clothes and still asleep. His wounds had been properly cleaned and they had stitched the wound in his palm. One of the nurses had tried to calm Dean and told him to go home and get some sleep and that they would call as soon as Sam woke up, but Dean refused to leave his brother's side. So right now was he sitting in a chair next to Sam's bed, fighting against tiredness.

"Please wake up soon, Sammy." Dean whispered before he finally lost the battle and fall asleep with his head tilted to one side.

* * *

"Dean…"

Dean woke up slowly at the sound of his name, his neck hurting from the uncomfortable position he had been sleeping in. But as soon as he saw Sam looking at him he forgot about the pain and smiled slightly at his little brother.

"Hey Sammy." Dean whispered and sat up straight. He stretched his arms and legs and yawns.

Sam still looked as tired as he had done for weeks, but Dean knew it would get better. It just had to.

"What happened?" Sam asked with half-closed eyes, still tired as hell, but just as stubborn as Dean. There was no way that Sam would let sleep win over him now.

"I'm not sure yet. I haven't really dug into it. I've been waiting for you to get better." Dean said.

That hint of smile there had been on Sam's lips disappeared and he looked so sad that Dean barely could bring himself to look at his younger brother.

"Dean, I don't know if – if I even are going to get better." Sam said.

Dean skipped a heartbeat. "Of course you're."

"Dean, I –"

"No Sam," Dean cut in "listen here: I know you will get better, I know you can beat this, whatever it is. And you know why? Because you, could beat the God damn Devil when he was inside you. You could control that son of a bitch long enough to jump down into the pit and even take Michael with you. So don't you dare say that you can't win over this too."

Sam looked away from Dean, looking at the ceiling to avoid eye contact with his brother; a single tear fell from his eye down his cheek. "I just don't know if I can do this anymore. I just wanted it to be over. And now…" Sam swallowed, unable to finish.

Dean knew exactly what Sam was thinking. The meaning of all this had been to stop the demons and angels for good, but instead they were ended up in more trouble than they had been in before.

"We'll find a solution." Dean said.

Sam made a short laugh. "And then what? Dean, no matter what we do, we always end up in more trouble than we were in before. It never stops."

Dean knew damn right that Sam was right. But he wouldn't let Sam give up now. He needed Sam to get better and get up and away before any of the angels was brought in.

"I know," Dean said. "No matter how many good things we do for this world, it just keeps throwing shit at us and that suck man, it really do. But you know what? We keep doing good things anyway, because that's what we do. And trust me, I wish you could get a normal life with a wife, kids and dogs, but right now is that not really an opportunity. Right now I need you to get better because I can't do this without you."

After that, none of the brothers said anything and there fell silence in the room. Sam still staring at the ceiling. The silence lasted for a couple of minutes till Dean's phone rang, but it wasn't a number he recognized. "Hello?"

"Hello Dean." A familiar voice said.

"Cas!" Dean said relieved, finally getting a life sign from his friend. Sam looked in Dean's direction by the mention of the angel's name.

"Cas are you okay?" Dean asked, well knowing what the answer would be, he could hear it in Castiel's voice, the sadness.

"I…" Castiel began but didn't know how to tell what had happened to him. "I need help Dean."

It hurt Dean's heart to hear the helplessness in Castiel's voice "Where are you right now?"

"I'm not sure." Castiel sighed and sounded like he was about to cry or just had done it.

"Okay. It's okay, Cas. Find out where you are and I'll come and pick you up, all right?"

"All right. I'll call you again then." Castiel said and hang up without a goodbye.

Never before had Dean so badly wanted that Castiel just had showed up out of thin air instead of calling, just the thought of it, that Cas wasn't able to do so. Well it scared Dean.

Dean stood up. "I'll just pick Cas up and drive him to the bunker and then I'll come back. Okay?"

"No," Sam shook his head. "Dean you can't just drop him off at the bunker and you know that, not after whatever he has been through. You've to take care of him, hell, you've to take care of yourself, get some sleep. Please Dean, I'll promise I'll get some too. And then you can come by again tomorrow."

"I can't just leave you here." Dean said.

"Of course you can. You're right, I've to fight this and right now isn't there anything you can do to help me."

"Fine. But I'll be here early." Dean said. Actually he was glad that Sam would let him make sure that Cas was all right and right settled in the bunker.

Sam nodded and gave Dean a small smile.

* * *

It was just after dawn when Dean pulled the car over just in front of the bench where Castiel was sitting, looking down at his own hands. Dean got out of the car and looked at Castiel with so much sadness in his eyes and mind.

Castiel's shoes and the lower part of his pants were covered in mud and his hair was a mess. He didn't even look up as Dean walked over to him; he just kept looking at his hands. So Dean sat down beside his friend.

"Hey Cas." Dean said softly.

Castiel turned his head and looked at Dean. His otherwise blue eyes were red from crying. It looked like he wanted to say something, but not a single word came out. And he still hadn't moved his hands.

"Let me see your hand, buddy." Dean said and took Castiel's left hand to give it a closer look.

If it had been anyone else, Dean wouldn't had put much into it, but seeing Castiel's hand covered in tiny cuts all over his hand made Dean even sadder if that was possible.

"I can't heal them, Dean." Cas said, sounding like he could begin crying every second.

Dean wasn't stupid and he wouldn't ask Castiel the obvious question, _are you not an angel anymore? _Because that was damn clear. It was something they needed to talk about, but not until Castiel was ready.

So he went with a lighter question. "What happened, Cas?"

"He tricked me. And then –"Castiel swallowed hard "And then he cut out my grace. It's my fault, all of it. I should never have trusted him and now are they all falling because of me." He looked down again and Dean saw a tear fell down to the ground.

"Cas, you didn't know. You understand? I get you didn't wanted to trust that bitch Naomi after all what she have done to you. And hell, it was Sam and I who found Metatron in the first place. It's not your fault; you just tried to fix your family."

Castiel's hands turned into fists. "But I didn't. I destroyed it." He said through clenched teeth.

Dean laid his hand on Castiel's shoulder. "Come on Cas, let's go."

He got Castiel up from the bench and into the front seat of the Impala.

They drove in silence and it was killing Dean, he worked out over hundred different things to say. But none of the things he could think of would give Castiel any comfort right now. So when Dean parked the car outside the bunker, had he still not said a single word since they had been sitting on the bench.

Dean went straight to his room and found some clothes to Castiel.

"Here, go take a shower." Dean said and handed Cas the clothes.

Castiel just nodded and went to the bathroom and Dean went into the kitchen, Cas had to be hungry. Dean began to make some sandwiches of what they had in the fridge. He soon heard footsteps, but it wasn't Cas, it was Kevin.

"Hey Kevin." Dean said.

"What happened last night?" Kevin asked.

Dean frowned "You went outside?"

But Kevin hadn't been outside, he hadn't seen the angels fall. Instead the young prophet had seen things inside the bunker; things there most likely had something to do with all the angels falling. _But that's another problem._

Dean began to give a brief summary of the night's events, as brief as possible on such a topic. He told about the angels, that they hadn't fulfilled the trials and Sam in the hospital. But he didn't mention Cas' part in it, he just said "Cas is no longer an angel either, so I just have to give him something to eat, maybe have talk with him and then get him to bed."

"Yeah, sure." Kevin said.

But Dean knew the boy probably was pissed at some point about the whole 'Hell is not closed after all', Kevin had lost so much in the last six month trying to help them out, so Dean also needed to have a talk with him. _Later, it's another problem._

Kevin grabbed one of the sandwiches Dean just had made and wandered off to his own room they had given him in the bunker.

Dean was alone in the kitchen for a couple of more minutes before Castiel finally walked in. It was strange for Dean to see Cas in something else than his usually suit and trench coat. But it was especially strange to see him wear Dean's clothes. The clothes were hanging loose on him, his feet were bare and his wet hair was sticking out in all directions. Dean would have been smiling of the sight, if it hadn't been for Cas' still sad face.

Dean put the sandwiches on a plate and took them with him over to the table where he sat down. Castiel took the chair next to him and then took one of the sandwiches.

"Hunger is an odd feeling." Castiel declared before he took a bite of it.

Dean smiled briefly and took one himself. He decided it was time to talk about the whole fallen angel thing. Because he had the feeling that Cas never would bring up the topic himself. "Cas, maybe we should talk more about what happened last night."

Castiel nodded. "Yes, how is Sam?"

Dean looked at Cas for a long time, wanted to say that it was not what he meant, but there were no doubt that Cas didn't already knew that. So he let it go for now and talked about Sam.

"We should go visit him." Cas said.

Dean shook his head. "No. We both need sleep, we visits him tomorrow. You can sleep in my room tonight and I'll take Sam's."

They would make a room ready for Castiel, but that had to wait to tomorrow too, Dean was too god damn tired right now. So he led Cas to his bedroom. Cas got into bed; Dean turned off the light and was just about to close the door when he changed his mind. So instead of leaving the room, Dean closed the door and found his way to the bed in the dark, and sat down on the other side of where Castiel was laying. They needed to talk about this now and maybe Cas would find it easier in the dark.

"Talk to me." Dean said. He was sitting with his back against the wall, looking at where Castiel was laying. His eyes were slowly adjusting to the dark so he could begin to see the silhouettes of the other's face.

Castiel lay very still, looking at the ceiling. "There is nothing to talk about, Dean." He sounded hoarse.

"It helps to talk about things. I did the same thing with Sam."

"What do you want me to say Dean? That I'm not an angel anymore?" Cas turned his head toward Dean.

In a way was it even more painful to hear it from Castiel himself. "I know, Cas, and we'll find a solution."  
"There is no solution Dean." Castiel's tone was hard before he continued in the same sad one as before: "I've lost all my powers. I'm useless."

"Don't say that. That's not true."

"Really? That's funny," Cas said almost sounding _sarcastic_. "because I remember you saying so last time I lost my powers and that was just for a _day_."

_Without your powers you're just a baby in a trench coat_. Dean remembered it now when Castiel mentioned it. But he hadn't meant it, not like this. "You know that's not how I feel, right? That I never would abandon you just because you're human."

"But you were right Dean. Without my powers I'm nothing and with them I seem to destroy everything I try to save. Maybe my mortality is good for something, maybe I should just – "

"Don't!" Dean said angrily. "Don't finish that line. I can't give you your angel mojo back right now, but we'll try to find a way to do it. I can't give you Heaven back either, but if you want this can be your home now. Here with me and Sam, we're your family."

"Dean, I – "Cas began and Dean could hear the tears would began to come soon. "I'm scared."

Dean slid down onto the bed so he was just in front of Cas. "It's okay to be scared Cas."

Castiel began to sob. "My head, it's so empty. All the things I knew is gone and worst of all, I can't hear any of them. All the other angels, they are gone. It's so empty."

Castiel had turned his whole body toward Dean and had begun to cry silently. Dean moved closer and held Cas close into him and Castiel buried his face into Dean's shoulder. Dean slowly strokes the former angel's hair. But he had no idea how to fix this, how could he replace the sound of thousands of angels?

"Cas the only thing I can say is what I told Sam too. I'll try to fix this, all those problems, but I can't do it on my own. I need the two of you to help me; we can do this together Cas. Sam is fighting to get better. Try to do the same, will you promise me that?"

Castiel nodded "I promise." He mumbled.

This was how it would be. Solve one problem at the time, or at least try to. And Dean had begun with the two most important. Because he really needed Sam and Castiel and he would help them get better, no doubt about that. For without them wouldn't he be able to fix anything else, especially not himself.


End file.
